After 20 episodes of Evangelion it hit me: Shinji embodies an ordinary person who thinks he is worth something in a company/country, but in reality, he is just being used. Rei embodies the fact that he is easily replaced, and Asuka shows the massive gap between one’s desires and actual capabilities. Gendo is like textbook tyrant. This wouldn’t have caught my attention if I hadn’t watched Madoka before this, where similar problems are raised. (When I watched Eva for the first time had no clue about any of this.) And I asked myself: what is my place in this world, am I just someone’s pawn, used to bring global ideas to life while being treated as disposable? From the perspective of a state or a corporation, it’s way more convenient to have an impersonal employee - someone without their own ideas, thoughts, family, or hobbies. Wouldn’t it be perfect for them to just use people as disposable material (Like Rei, the society in 1984, or just real-world history.) Honestly, now I remember that this theme has been raised tons of times in literature—the “little man” trope, like in Crime and Punishment. Ironically, I was reminded of this by Cocoa in episode 4 of season 1 of Gochiusa, - a true masterpiece of world literature lol. It’s funny, but until the very end, I thought Gendo was a cool guy (like some of the bosses in Black Lagoon) and knew what he was doing. How wrong I was. But man, the way he sits in his chair is truly monumental :D gochiusa s1 ep4 “Crime and Punishemnt” P.S. Every time I write in English, it feels like I’m writing an essay, so it might look a bit too formal.